TITLE: Never The Twain? (Part 16/31)
AUTHOR: Zahir
FEEDBACK: Please. Pretty please. With sugar on top. And a cherry.
ARCHIVING: Just ask is all.
SYNOPSIS: This is an alternate history in which Willow never completed the Soul Restoration Spell. Of all the changes that flow from that one, the biggest is that Tara is a vampire. Oh, and Faith never worked for the Mayor.
COUPLES: W/T, X/Ay, B/R
RATING: PG-13
SPOILERS: Up through and including "I Was Made To Love You" as well as some stuff from "Angel."
DISCLAIMERS: Most of the toys I'm playing with belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. I promise not to make money off them and to put them back none the worse for wear.
NOTE: The part of Jocelyn in my own mind is played by Gigi Edgely. For those of you who don't know, she portrays Chiana on the tv show "Farscape."

* * *

Willow moped. The locale had something to do with this, being a hospital and all. And the gown they made her wear did nothing for dignity or comfort. But the fight she'd had last night weighed her down in very many ways.

Ultimate evidence of that fight was seated next to the door. Giles sat there, obviously standing guard. Against Tara, of course. He wouldn't listen to her, of course. That much had been made excessively clear. Goddess forbid anyone imagine for one instant she might know what she was doing. Or that the risks of her relationship might be something she'd thought through and accepted. Funny how nobody freaked this way when she dated a werewolf. And Buffy herself had dated a vampire. So it wasn't as if she was breaking really new ground here.

A sigh brought Giles suddenly to her side. "Willow? Are you alright?"

"Yes, Giles, I'm fine."

The weary anger in her voice must have penetrated. He took off his glasses. "You have friends who love you, Willow."

"Be kinda nice if they trusted me, too."

"It isn't your fault," he said in what was probably meant as a soothing voice. It didn't soothe. "Whatever sorcery or the like this Tara creature used, we'll discover."

"Giles."

"Yes, Willow." He looked so eager. She was so angry.

"I love her."

The patient look on his face made Willow want to slap him. "You believe you do."

"Just like you believe you care about Buffy? After all, maybe that just some magic that's part of being a slayer. Their watchers just start caring for them more and more and more--but maybe its not real. Maybe its just magic."

"Don't be silly."

"Prove it. Prove anything you've ever felt was real. I'm betting you can't."

He wasn't going to listen. She could talk from now until doomsday (which, in Sunnydale, might be next Thursday so that might be the wrong homile to use but anyway) but that alone would never let him believe himself wrong. Not about this. And one really nasty thought came to Willow as she watched Giles patiently take his seat again by the door. Would he be reacting this way if Tara had been a boy? For that matter, would any of them? Because Buffy and Riley in particular had been acting...well...kinda crazy about the whole thing. And not just about that.

Giles snapped to attention as the door opened. The fact it was day no longer made any difference in his mind, obviously. Well, what did anyone expect? Did they really believe Willow wouldn't try everything she could to protect her girlfriend? Okay, maybe she shouldn't have stolen it, but...

Willow did a take. The person who walked into her hospital room could not be walking into her hospital room.

"Hello," said Britney Spears. "You must be Willow. My name is April."

"Uh...hi." Something about the way this girl talked seemed...familiar. And not in a Britney-Spears-kinda-way. "This is my friend, Rupert Giles."

"Hello Rupert Giles," the precisely perky blonde said.

"Yes. Well. Good morning."

"Do I know you?" ventured Willow.

"No. But we have a mutual friend. Someone from Los Angeles. Her name is Rose." She said all this with the identical smile throughout. And much the same intonation. But--much more importantly, she was from Tara. The bit about LA and "The Rose" was a dead (or undead) giveaway.

"Oh!" Willow said, she hoped not too enthusiastically. "How is Rose?"

"She said to tell you she is fine. And she said I was to ask how you were." Again with the cheerfulness.

"Just a bit of anemia. You know--college student, not eating right, that kinda thing."

April nodded vigorously. "Good nutrition is terribly important. So will you be in this hospital for long?"

Willow eyed Giles, who looked equally puzzled and titillated. "I checking out today. Then I'll be hanging around as usual."

"Oh good! Then maybe Rose can come over for a visit. I think she would like that."

"That'd be nice." Where did Tara find this girl?

"Well, I will be going now. Perhaps we will see each other again?"

"Maybe."

"Bye-bye!" And with that, April turned and left.

Giles stared after her. Then stared at Willow. She did her best to appear innocent.

* * *

Although she hadn't been a vampire that long, Tara still found the sunlight disorienting. She wondered if this was a permanent response of her demon to something that was normally fatal--Ring of Amara or no. But then she saw her target and banished such thoughts.

Tara made it to his car before Ben did. He looked a little startled, then relaxed in recognition. "Miss Maclay. Hi."

"Hi. I've got to ask you something."

"About the glass eye? Is there some irritation?"

"No, that's fine. But a friend of mine has been looking for someone, and I have an idea you might know where he is."

"Well," Ben looked puzzled. "If I can help--sure."

She took a snapshot out of her pocket, handing it to him. "His name is Warren." Ben took a long, hard look. Before he said anything, Tara already knew.

"He was admitted a couple of days ago."

"For what?"

"Psych ward. Had a sudden and unexplained mental collapse. There's been a lot of that going around." He looked anything but happy about that. "Do you want to see him."

"No. But I think I'd better." With a shrug, he motioned her back towards the hospital. "I should mention," Tara said as she started walking, "there're some people hanging around the hospital I don't want to see me. Nothing illegal, just--awkward."

"Hey, we've all got secrets."

* * *

Willow felt better now that she was in her own clothes. And almost free--of this room, anyway.

"So where's Buffy?"

Anya answered before Giles. "On patrol with Riley. Looking for Tara, I think." Willow's look of alarm brought a reaction from her. "But I don't think they'll find her."

"They certainly have had no luck so far," murmured Giles.

"Good," said Willow. She stared at Giles without flinching. He looked away.

"I for one hope they don't find her. Tara has been really nice, helping out with Xander and everything."

"Anya," said Giles, "did it never occur to you to ask why she was being so helpful."

"No. Just to wonder why the rest of you weren't. Except Willow." Giles sighed. In exasperation. And maybe some guilt. Willow liked to think he felt some guilt. "Anyway, its not like Tara hurt anybody."

"May I remind you this is a vampire we're talking about? One who fed from Willow?"

"I asked her to," offered Willow.

"That," said Giles after a moment or two, "was hardly the sanest act you've ever committed."

"Could have been worse," she answered. "For example, I could have gotten together with a bunch of Satanists and raised a death-worshipping demon to go around possessing people to kill us all off." Giles twitched. That hit home. Anya looked between them, sure she was missing something--quite rightly. She waited for someone to explain. When no one did, she make a little sound and looked at Willow.

"You ready to go?"

"Sure."

Giles followed them out.

* * *

Tara hadn't expected the Psych Ward to be so...full.

"We don't know what's causing it," said Ben, "but the number of admissions for mental disturbances has been a steady flood for months. Something in the water, maybe. Then, about a week or so ago, things got worse. A lot worse."

"More admissions?"

"Nope. They all got worse. Crazier."

Every single bed held a patient, twitching and moaning (in some cases snarling) against heavy restraints. More than a few erupted into peals of laughter, while one seemed to be mooing like a cow. The din was a terrible thing to hear, like what Tara imagined hell might be like. She gazed at every face in the room, over three dozen in all. Not one focused back at her.

"The quiet ones get sent home, of course," said Ben in a monotone.

"And this acceleration--its recent?"

"Very." For some reason Ben's puzzlement seemed to grow over this. "And sudden. I've never seen anything like this."

"Its as if whatever caused this first wave of madness had something added to it," mused Tara.

"Guess so."

There! Warren, the builder of April, was whimpering against sweat-soaked sheets, not so much struggling against his restraints as pulling away from them.

"No...no...she'll get me, she'll find me...got to get away..." His voice came out in ragged gasps.

"He sounds terrified of something," offered Ben.

"Yeah. But he knows better than anyone..." Tara stopped herself before going any further. She abruptly turned to go. "There's something else going on here," she said in a low voice.

"Something else?" Ben followed her. "Like what?"

"If you're lucky, maybe you'll never find out."

Tara did not wait for him to catch up.

* * *

After two full days of having people hover over her Willow was ready to scream. To distract herself she dove into what research she could find about Glory. Fortunately, this proved to be absorbing and she managed after a few hours to dull the ache of not seeing Tara. Of course the good news--that Buffy hadn't managed to find her--helped. What didn't was the blasé assumption on the parts of Buffy, Riley and Giles that she was a victim. Poor lonely Willow, so down in the dumps she fell for the first sweet-talking vampire to come along and ask for the Ring of Amara. None of them used those words exactly, but where they got the notion she was this stupid baffled her. Like she couldn't figure this out? The only thing keeping her from tossing a few spells around in frustration was hope they'd eventually come around. Plus she tried to give them credit. Last time any of them had trusted a vampire it had very much ended in tears. So she waited. Impatiently.

"Find out anything new?" asked Anya as she landed next to Willow at the back of the magic shop.

"Nope." Willow took a cursory glance at her notes, all color coded for cross-indexing. "Glory. Also known as Glorificus. One of three hellgods who rule a demon realm, blah blah blah, banished to Earth, etcetera, needs to consume human mental energy in order to stay this side of sane." Remembering again what had happened to Xander, Willow stopped. "Sorry. Its just there doesn't seem to be anything more specific in here about anything. And I get frustrated."

"That's okay." Anya nodded. Her attention didn't seem to be on what Willow was saying. Instead her gaze swept the store. Willow looked as well. Jocelyn was selling another crystal ball. Several local blessed-wannabes from campus were gazing at the herb racks. Anya cocked her head. "Something's missing." Rising, she headed for the bottles of tinctures, herbs and salves. "Hey," she called to Jocelyn, "did you know you're out of frog's breath oil?"

Jocelyn finishing ringing up a sale before answering. "Yeah. This odd couple bought all we had a couple of days ago."

"All of it? What for?"

The half-demon shrugged using only her eyebrows. "Pretty young blonde with an old guy. Coke bottle glasses, you know?"

Anya looked puzzled. "Yeah, but what would they use it for? I mean, frog's breath oil doesn't have many uses. It doesn't go in any potions. The only ritual that requires it takes place on the summer solstice. Other than that..."

"Hello, my name is April." She was back. And exactly as precisely cheerful as before. Willow's heart skipped a beat. A message from Tara?

"Uh...hi." Anya managed a smile.

"Are you a friend of Willow? Because I am looking for her."

Willow raised her hand. "Right over here, April."

The blonde turned prettily and headed for Willow. Anya trailed, intrigued. "Since I am new in Sunnydale," April recounted, "and I only know you, I was hoping you would be willing to show me a good place to shop for shoes." She nodded as she finished.

In the corner of her eye, Willow saw Giles taking all this in. He looked suspicious. Damn.

"Actually, I know more about shoe outlets than Willow," offered Anya.

"You do? Hello."

"I'm Anya."

"Hello Anya. You are very pretty."

"Thanks. I think."

"But I made my offer first to Willow. It would be rude for me to withdraw my invitation."

"Who says you have to? Willow, you could use a break. The three of us can make an outing of it for a few hours?" Anya looked at Willow as she said this. Privately, the red-haired witch squirmed. She wanted to be alone with April, find out what message Tara might have for her (and find out who this April was, anyway). On the other hand, she could probably find some time alone with the blonde during the shopping trip, right? And with Anya along, Giles and company were less likely to be suspicious.

At that thought, Willow suddenly noticed the look Anya was giving her. Not a come-along-and-have-fun look, no. This was a read-my-mind-because-we-can't-talk-here look. Willow felt her eyes grow big.

"Okay. Yeah, that sounds like fun." Goddess, Willow hoped that didn't sound as fake as it felt. "And--it might help me recharge the old research batteries, too." Careful not to move too quickly, she gathered up her coat and purse. "Giles?" The Watcher came closer, still plainly concerned. "I'm going shopping."

"Shopping."

"Yeah. Its something we female types do from time to time. Not so much me, usually, but I think maybe this'd be a good time. Don't you worry--here're not one but two escorts for me." She smiled. Deliberately. And so did Anya. Between them, so did April. Did she ever not smile?

Giles took off his glasses. Then put them back on. At last he nodded. "Enjoy yourselves."

"Thanks," exclaimed Anya, "we will!"

With that, the three of them left the magic shop.

* * *

If Tara's heart beat, which it didn't, it would have skipped a couple as the door to Anya apartment opened. Of course Anya was the first to come in. It was her apartment, after all. Then came the robot April.

"Hello Tara, how are you?"

"Fine, April." She held up a bag. "Here're the shoes I bought you."

"Thank you." April obediently took the bag and sat on the sofa to see what Tara had chosen. She needed to know the prices and location of the shoe store for later reference. Not that Buffy and the others were likely to get that suspicious, but better to be safe. All these thoughts flowed through Tara's mind like quicksilver, then ended abruptly as She came into the room.

For one moment, Willow looked at her. One long, fleeting moment.

And then, they were in each others' arms.

TO BE CONTINUED